MUNICH, Germany - The United States sits in third and eighth after the opening three games of trios at the 2010 World Tenpin Bowling Association World Men's Championships.

Patrick Allen, Rhino Page and Wes Malott were the top U.S. finishers on the medium oil pattern Tuesday at Dream Bowl Palace in third place with 1,930, an average of 214.4. Bill O'Neill, Chris Barnes and Tommy Jones are eighth with 1,885.

Trios qualifying continues Wednesday with the final three games on the long oil pattern. The top four teams after six games advance to the semifinals Wednesday night to determine the medalists.

Allen had the top individual score among the Americans with a 686 series and was followed by Page with 623 and Malott, who closed with a 258 game to shoot 621. For the other trio, O'Neill led the way with 654, Barnes shot 634 and Jones had 597.

"We weren't looking too hot after Game 2," Allen said. "But Wes got in the right part of the lane, got comfortable and threw a lot of strikes to carry us. We're going to have to figure out how to score as a team on the long pattern tomorrow. Today we were just trying to stay in the hunt."

Malaysia's Alex Liew, Syafiq Ridhwa and Aaron Kong led the field Tuesday with a 1,964 total. Italy's Massimo Pirozzi, Mauro Rampi and Marco Reviglio sit in second with 1,956.



BowlingDigital.com will provide live streaming of the semifinals and finals of each event and coverage can also be viewed live on BOWL.com. The trios semifinals and final are scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern.

In the all-events standings after 15 games, O'Neill leads the field with 3,291, an average of 219.4, while Barnes sits in second at 3,246. Allen is currently sixth with 3,225, while Malott is 13th with 3,162.

The top 16 players in the all-event standings after 24 games advance to Saturday's Masters match play competition. Jones, who is 51st, and Page, who is 64th, are currently outside of the cut.

The 2010 WTBA World Men's Championships features 356 competitors from 65 countries competing for medals in six events - five-player team, trios, doubles, singles, all-events and Masters match play.